Word: latvian
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LATVIA. Following the lead of Lithuania, Latvian lawmakers amended the constitution to create a multiparty system...
This latest sign of fragmentation in Mikhail Gorbachev's multi-ethnic empire comes just as he is trying to defuse the growing threat of secession by the three Baltic republics. Lithuania's Communist Party has already declared its independence from Moscow headquarters, and the Estonian and Latvian organizations are considering similar moves toward local autonomy. Gorbachev plans to visit the area this week in search of compromise. Now he must look southward as well, to festering nationality problems in Azerbaijan -- and the long-feared spread of Islamic fundamentalism from Iran into the six predominantly Muslim republics of the U.S.S.R...
...independence from Moscow and, to save itself, lined up with the republic's strong separatist movement. Earlier last month, the Lithuanian parliament voted to abolish the party's constitutionally guaranteed monopoly on power -- a move Kremlin leaders have been resisting on the national level. Just last week the Latvian parliament followed its neighbor in eliminating the Communist Party's unique leading role. Lithuanian party leader Algirdas Brazauskas organized the breach with Moscow to shore up credibility before local elections on Feb. 24. "Without these changes," he said, "our party will lack the appeal necessary to guarantee its existence...
Latvia has always had stronger ties to Moscow than have the other two republics. Latvian Riflemen made up the Kremlin's elite Praetorian Guard in the years after the Bolshevik Revolution, and party boss Arvid Pelshe became a fixture of the Brezhnev gerontocracy. Latvian First Secretary Janis Vagris, who gained his post last October when Boris Pugo was promoted to Moscow's Party Control Committee, is viewed by many as a compromise choice whose views on reform and political pluralism are acceptable to party conservatives...
...intriguing measure of popular support for the cause of Latvian self- determination came during the parliamentary elections, when Juris Dobelis, a leader of the Latvian National Independence Movement, ran against four establishment candidates, including First Secretary Vagris. The Communist Party chief squeaked by with 51%, and Dobelis polled an impressive 34%. When the Latvian Popular Front asked its 100-member council last June whether it should "join the struggle for Latvia's complete and economic independence," the vote was a unanimous yes. In May Popular Front members opened formal contacts with the leaders of Latvian exile organizations at a gathering...